BGT: Jadeja, Rohit put India on top after Australia bowled out for 177

Australia skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch with low bounce which offered occasional spin

Skipper Rohit Sharma struck a breezy half-century after Ravindra Jadeja claimed a fifer in his first Test after a five-month injury break as India bowled out Australia for 177 in their first innings and shaved off 77 runs from that on the S opening day of the first Test of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, here on Thursday.

With the focus on the pitch scribed by the Australians tailor-made for the Indian Dinners, Jadeja put India on top by claiming 5-47 and Ravichandran Ashwin claimed 3/43 as India dominated the visitors.

Rohit slammed his half-century off 66 deliveries and shared a 76-run partnership with K,L Rahul as India set themselves up for a big total. But they let slip some of that advantage when Rahul (20 off 71 balls) was caught and bowled by debutant off-spinner Todd Murphy off the penultimate over of the day.

At stumps, Rohit was batting on 56 off 69 balls, nine fours and 1 six, with Ravichandran Ashwin yet to score a run as India trailed Australia by 100 runs with nine wickets in hand.

Earlier, Australia skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch with low bounce which offered occasional spin and were soon down to 2-2 in the third over. Their struggles on the opening day were interspersed by two half-century partnerships -- an 82-run stand between Marnus Labuschagne (49) and Steve Smith (37) for the third wicket and a 53-run stand for the sixth wicket between Peter Handscomb (29 batting) and Alex Carey (36).

Though the pitch was difficult to bat on, Labuschagne and Smith showed that one can score runs on it as they carried Australia to 76/2 at lunch.